why sustainable swimwear?

We love this planet and we want to show it love for many, many years to come! So we make sure each part of your Elle Evans design leaves as small a footprint as possible. From concept all the way through to packaging and shipping, we take the road less travelled and leave it as clean as we found it. Our mission is to make you look damn fine on the beach, by the pool or in the gym, all while giving you that gratifying feeling of knowing you’re saving the planet, go you!

The Supplychain

Our supply chain it starts all over the world where the waste that becomes our fabric is collected. It then moves to Slovenia where our 100% regenerated fabric Econyl is produced, you can find out more about the Econyl process here, the company that produces Econyl are very transparent. As the fabrics we use are man made, no animals are harmed to produce them, in fact, as the fabric recycles plastic waste dredged from the sea, the marine-life are actually benefiting from our fabric being made!

Once the fabric is shipped to our supplier in Melbourne and received by us, it is then sent to Digital Fabrics in NSW where our fabric is printed using water-based, non-toxic inks. Our entire production is done in house by myself (the designer) and an other seamstress. Our seamstress is paid by the hour, well above a living wage here in Australia, works less than 5 hours at a time and stops for regular tea breaks and to play with the studio kitty-cat Louis!

We sew instructive washing labels into each item of clothing to help the wearer reduce unnecessary energy consumption through washing and drying; usually this is the most environmentally harmful part of a garments life. We use minimal (if any) fastenings and trims and when we do we try to unsure that they are as sustainable as our fabrics, or at very least recyclable.

In terms of our design process we always design with sustainability in mind, meaning if we can make a garment reversible and therefore add to it’s potential longevity I will, in the case of our activewear the entire range can also be worn in the water, whether your surfing, SUPing or just swimming in Melbourne’s chilly ocean all our leggings, crops, bras and rashies have dual functionality.

Our Story

Tanya Evans and Ellie Evans met in 2010 (and no, we're not related, we like to think it was just fate!), we worked for the same fashion label for several years and became fast friends. A few years after we had both left the company found Tanya raising her two beautiful daughters in Sydney, and Ellie nursing her own "baby" Elle Evans Swimwear in Melbourne. Elle Evans Swimwear grew (so did Tanya's babes!) and when Ellie finally plucked up the courage to ask Tanya if she would join as a business partner, Tanya was not so secretly thrilled! Each talented in our separate fields we feel like we have found the ying to each others yang, and we can't wait to bring Elle Evans Swimwear into the foreground of the Australian Fashion scene